Shares fall in London as natural resources sector weighs
By the end of the trading day in the City, the FTSE 100 had lost 10.75 points, a 0.1% fall which took it down to 7.730.58.
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Your support makes all the difference.Fears over the Chinese economy weighed on London’s top index on Thursday as separately the Bank of England decided to hike interest rates once again.
By the end of the trading day in the City, the FTSE 100 had lost 10.75 points, a 0.1% fall which took it down to 7.730.58.
It came as the price of metals fell due to concerns that demand from China might be weaker than expected.
This weighed on the price of some of the biggest mining companies in the world, many of which call London home.
“After a quiet session for Asia markets, European markets have slipped lower, with declines in basic resources and energy acting as a wider drag on sentiment,” said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.
“Today’s weakness in commodity prices, and metals prices more specifically, appears to be being driven by concerns over a slowdown in the Chinese economy after producer prices slipped further into deflationary territory … and CPI (Consumer Prices Index inflation) hit its weakest level in two years.
“Glencore, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, Antofagasta are amongst the main decliners, along with BP and Shell as oil prices slide back, along with telecoms which is also under pressure.”
In Germany the Dax index dropped 0.4% on the day, while Paris’s Cac 40 rose 0.3%.
On Wall Street a short time after European markets closed the S&P 500 had dropped 0.3% while the Dow Jones was down 0.8%.
The pound dropped nearly 1% to 1.25 dollars, and was down 0.3% to 1.145 euros.
In company news, HSBC was fined 15 million dollars (£12 million) by US regulators for a “pervasive and longstanding” practice of using WhatsApp and other messaging systems from personal devices to discuss business matters.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the bank had not preserved the majority of these messages, which breaks US rules on recordkeeping.
Shares fell 1.3% during the day.
Meanwhile shares in Purplebricks fell another 29% after the under-pressure company said that a potential takeover deal might lead to shareholders getting little in return.
The business said it is in exclusive talks with Strike over tying together the two firms. The deal would likely be for Purplebricks assets, rather than buying the shares.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Smurfit Kappa, up 108p to 3,022p, Melrose Industries, up 13.7p to 458.4p, 3i Group, up 52.5p to 1,798.5p, ConvaTec, up 5.8p to 218.4p, and Admiral Group, up 59p to 2,234p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Rolls-Royce, down 10.4p to 145.9p, Airtel Africa, down 6.3p to 111.7p, Antofagasta, down 57.5p to 1,382p, Anglo American, down 96.5p to 2,347.5p, and Glencore, down 17.6p to 2,347.5p.